


One in the Same

by everamazingfe



Category: Grand Theft Auto V, Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Grand Theft Auto Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Enemies to Lovers, Fake AH Crew, M/M, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 07:58:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15703086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everamazingfe/pseuds/everamazingfe
Summary: Everyone gets two names on their wrists at some point in their lives: The name of their enemy, and the name of their soulmate. Unfortunately, sometimes those names belong to the same person.





	One in the Same

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted to my tumblr transboyvagabond.tumblr.com

The world had many anomalies, and Geoff was incredibly familiar with them. The single biggest anomaly was the fact that, on either wrist, everyone had a name. It was largely universal that your soulmate’s was on the right side because the right side of the brain was largely associated with emotion, which your soulmate would make you feel, and that your enemy’s was on the left because the left side of the brain was associated with logic, which you’d need to combat your enemy. Some people had the same name on both wrists, some people had their own names on one or the other, but no one had no names. Everyone had two names. Two words are written in their handwriting on their skin.

Geoff’s names had appeared without him noticing it. Maybe they had always been there, maybe they had just appeared the day before, maybe they’d been there for an entire year. He just hadn’t noticed them before. He’d just been settled into a new city, a new life, a new job. Los Santos was the perfect place for him, he’d been on top from the start, an enemy and a soulmate wouldn’t drag him down.

Geoff was never really sure what to do with his names. One of them just sounded straight up fake. Maybe it was a joke the world was playing on him? He really couldn’t be sure. Because on his left wrist, the word Vagabond was scrawled. And on his right wrist, the name James Haywood was written. It was because of this anomaly, one that Geoff still couldn’t quite explain, that he always kept his wrists covered and he told no one. Not even Jack, who he confided everything in. This would be a secret he’d take to his grave if he could.

* * *

Ryan was also familiar with the world’s many anomalies, but he resented nearly all of them. It just seemed like they were made to pit people against each other for no reason, and he wasn’t a fan of such needless violence. At least, he hadn’t been at the start. Time and circumstance changed things, and when he found himself without a home on the streets of Los Santos, that innocent southern boy in him got buried just as deep as everyone else he encountered.

The names on his wrist had appeared after a week-long stint in the hospital. Maybe not as a result of the hospital stay, but they sure were there when he left. All he knew was that when he went under, his wrists were blank, and when he woke up again days later, there they were. It really threw quite a wrench into his plans of making it in this city unopposed.

Even still, he made it his mission to seek out whoever it was these names belonged to. On his left wrist, the name Ramsey was written. And on his right, Geoff Fink. He knew who Ramsey was all too well, he’d picked a fight with one of his men that had landed him in the hospital. As for Geoff? Well, that person could be anywhere in the country and he wasn’t going to try and track them down. He’d just start with his enemy. Some C4 and a map of every warehouse the man owned should do the trick.

* * *

“Ramsey, it happened again.” The report came well into the morning, and Geoff was still up despite the early hour. Jack could tell her boss wasn’t going to be too happy about the news, but it had to be told. He’d be even madder if it waited until a more ‘reasonable’ hour. “The warehouse out by the docks this time.”

He groaned and scrubbed his hands over his face before slamming a hand down onto the desk. “Goddammit,” he muttered, “Did Gavin’s stupid cameras pick anything up this time?”

This question brought a smile to Jack’s face as she stepped further into the room, setting a few printouts onto the desk as Geoff reached over to turn on the lamp. The lights from the city were so bright through his window that he didn’t really need to, though. The pictures were a little bit grainy due to the night vision that had to be used, and how zoomed in the pictures had become in an attempt to get a clear shot of the person in the image. Shown in the image was a man carrying a duffel bag, but more importantly was the jacket and the mask. Black and blue with white stripes, and a grey skull mask. The Vagabond. Of course. Who else would it have been? His other hand slammed down onto the desk now, and he let out a huff of breath in frustration, gritting his teeth.

“This motherfucker.” The Vagabond had been a thorn in his side for ages now, and it was really quite clear why that was the name scrawled on his left wrist. “Get someone stationed at all of our remaining warehouses. He’ll probably be hitting the other one on the docks tonight, but we can’t be too sure. Knock him down, bring him in, I want to ask him a few questions.” But if the Vagabond’s brains ended up against the wall instead, he maybe wouldn’t be too upset about it.

* * *

Slowly but surely, one night at a time, the number of Fake AH’s warehouses around town was decreasing as another one went up in a blast of smoke and rubble. Ryan was starting to near the end of his list, but he wasn’t done yet. Not even close. After such a quick in and out the night before, he got cocky and that meant he wasn’t planning as smart as he normally would. Usually, he’d give it a few days before he hit another one to let the heat die down, and he wouldn’t do one in such a close proximity to the last one, but he got cocky. And that was sure to be his downfall.

The next night, with a duffel bag slung across his back that was chock full of some more C4, he rode up to the docks on his motorcycle. A quick look around told him that all the dock workers had left, which was fortunate because he didn’t want them to get caught in the crossfire. “Perfect,” he breathed, pulling his mask on and dropping the bag to the ground and pulling out what he needed.

He’d only made it a few steps towards the remaining Fake AH warehouse when he heard a voice, loud and commanding, come from the darkness. “You better put that shit down if you know what’s good for you.”

He weighed his options, though those calculations were cut very short at the sound of a gun cocking. This was a bad time for him to be unarmed. A very bad time. “Okay, okay, I’m putting it down,” he muttered, just letting the C4 drop from his hands and fall to the ground. “So... Are you a Fake protecting your territory or some wannabee badass?” he asked, turning around and looking for whoever it was that had spoken to him. He opened his mouth to taunt again, but the sickening crack of the butt of a gun against his head cut him off pretty quick. Ryan crumpled to the ground, knocked out on his feet.

“Ramsey’s gonna have a good time with you,” the person muttered, and it was the last thing he registered before going down. If Ryan were still awake, those words would have instilled a sense of panic in him. His C4 was packed back in the duffel, and he was lifted just as easily as the bag was before he was thrown just as carelessly into the trunk of a car. “Alright, I got him. Where do you want me to take him?”

“Bring him up to the Paleto safehouse. I don’t want anyone calling the cops with a noise complaint.”

* * *

Geoff was pacing back and forth of the basement of the safehouse. Jack and Gavin were upstairs, waiting for Michael to show up with the Vagabond in tow. The sound of the car coming up and a horn honking only sped up his pacing, which didn’t stop until the man who’d been terrorizing him for weeks now was tied up and in front of him, the mask removed. “Not so tough now, are you?” he muttered, starting to check the man’s pockets for weapons, more C4, and some sort of identification. There were a few knives that ended up piled up on the table, but more importantly, Geoff ended up with a wallet in his hand. “Bingo.”

The wallet was empty of cash, there was a single debit card that he didn’t care about, but the license was something he did care about. Just a glance at it told him that it was maybe of questionable realness, the name on it made him uneasy, so he passed it off to Gavin so he could investigate, with an additional order of, “I want every bit of information you can get me on this guy. Don’t leave a single thing out.”

With the door shut and the room empty except for the two of them, Geoff kicked the chair that the Vagabond was slumped over in. “Wake up, asshole. I’ve got a few questions for you,” he growled, this time going for his shin. This got him to start waking up, dazed and confused as he looked around the dim basement. “Let’s start with some introductions. I’ll start: My name’s Geoff Ramsey, and I’m the guy whose business you fucked with.”

Ryan blinked a few times to try and clear his vision, lifting his head to look at the man before him who apparently went by Geoff. Thank fuck this guy wasn’t his soulmate, because that was a damn close call. “What? Okay... I’m Ryan,” he muttered, figuring his best bet was to comply. The knots were too tight for him to slip free, and it was clear that he didn’t have any knives left on him to help him out judging from the pile on the table.

“And do you have a last name, Ryan?”

“No.”

“Really? Because I think you do. Saw your license when I was clearing the knives, so you can’t really lie.”

“Why ask if you already knew?”

“Because I wanted to see if you’d be honest. And it’s clear you’ve got no plans on doing that now, so thank you.”

“If you so much as think about calling me James, I’ll cut your dick off.”

That was good news for Geoff because it meant that the license wasn’t a fake and it’d be so much easier for Gavin to get information on him. At the same time though, it was also bad news. Because that meant he was staring his soulmate right in the face. It didn’t look like James, or Ryan, had made the connection though. He wasn’t sure how to feel about all this.

“Hollow threat coming from a man without any knives. So, James, wanna tell me why you were fucking up my warehouses?” he asked, a devious smirk stretched across his lips, using the name anyway because he had the upper hand.

Ryan just rolled his eyes, his expression a little less entertained than Geoff’s was. “Figured since I had your name on my wrist, I might as well follow through on the expectation and fuck with you,” he explained simply. “All I had was ‘Ramsey’ so I figured, why wouldn’t it be you? So I put together a map of all your warehouses, and I started blowin’ em up. Also because it was fun to do.” He shrugged a shoulder as he explained, trying to tug on the rope that held his hands together behind his back.

Geoff just hummed skeptically, not entirely sure he believed the explanation. “Mind if I take a look?”

“I do, actually. So don’t.”

“I think I will anyway.” Geoff stood up and walked around to the back of the chair, crouching down to pull up the sleeves of Ryan’s jacket. Ryan was tugging on the ropes a little more frantically, just trying to escape. He’d never shown anyone his names voluntarily to his friends or family, why would he ever let this person, his enemy, see them? “Huh. I haven’t gone by that name in a long time.”

Ryan twisted, trying to look over his shoulder at Geoff, who was now rolling up his own sleeves and taking off the many bracelets that adorned his wrists. “What?” he asked, confused and incredibly nervous. “I hope that doesn’t mean what I think it means,” he breathed, heart rate picking up speed.

Geoff said nothing as he put the last of his bracelets into his pocket, then he stretched an arm out over either of Ryan’s shoulders so he could see the names that were on his own wrists. It only seemed fair. The gasp of surprise that came from the other man had Geoff grinning, and once he was sure that Ryan had seen both he took a step back.

Ryan was still reeling. His enemy and his soulmate were the same person? That couldn’t be right, there had to be some sort of flaw in the system. There had to be some sort of explanation to this, some other Geoff Fink and some other James Haywood that were meant to be their soulmates. He wasn’t sure he wanted this to be the man he was meant to be with. Geoff could say the same thing, though he was a little more accepting of his enemy and soulmate being the same person. With how things in his life had gone up until this point, it only seemed like it was just another puzzle piece that fell right into place.

“Are you going to cut my dick off if I untie you? Because now I feel a little weird having you all tied up if I’m being honest.” When he received a head shake in response, Geoff moved to start undoing all the knots, cursing under his breath. “Fuckin’ Michael. Always has to go way too overkill with this shit.”

“I can’t believe you’re my fucking soulmate. Figures I’d end up with the boss of some shitty crew.” He’d avoided crews before because the boss always wanted him to be theirs when he very clearly couldn’t be. It never went well for him.

Geoff just shrugged. “If it’s any consolation, you don’t have to join my ‘shitty crew.’ You are gonna have to stop blowing up my warehouses though, because I cannot keep losing money like this. I got employees to pay, cops to bribe, if it happens again I’ll have to let Jack loose on you.”

Ryan wanted to fight and argue, but the want to destroy the warehouses just wasn’t there anymore. He could find someone else to fuck with. His soulmate was already making him soft. It was disgusting. He hated it. “Fine. I’ll stop blowing up your warehouses. It’ll save me a fortune on C4 anyway.” When all the ropes were undone, he was quick to stand up and start rubbing at his wrists to try and ease the rope burn he’d gotten from all his tugging. “I still hate you, you know.”

“Okay, well. Yeah, that’s fair. I guess. Don’t know what else I would expect from you.”

“Just be glad I’m not gonna kill you.”

“Right back at ya, buddy.”

They stood there for a while, Ryan slowly starting to return his knives to their spots in his pockets and in his jacket as Geoff watched him with his arms crossed. Once all the knives were back, the former began to pat his pockets, expression slowly turning more confused. “Where’s my wallet?”

“Gave it to Gavin to see what he could find out on you... I, admittedly, I thought the license was stolen. Kind of shocked that a guy as in demand as you had such an empty wallet, though. Gotta start chargin’ more for your merc work.”

“How much I charge for jobs isn’t on the table for discussion right now. I want my wallet back. Then can I go?”

“Fine, fine, just give me a second.” It took far longer than a second for Geoff to return, as his wrists were still exposed for the crew to see. Jack noticed it first, but she kept quiet about it. She had her questions, but there were better times to interrogate Geoff about his situation. Michael was next, and he had to leave the room and eventually the safehouse in order to mask his laughter. Gavin was the last, of course, but fortunately, that came after Geoff received a full report on information on Ryan and he’d gotten the wallet back. That’s when the flood of unstoppable questions began. And Geoff had to answer all of them before he could return to Ryan. “Okay, we’re gonna have to sneak you out the back,” he said as he came running back down the stairs, shoving Ryan’s wallet into his hand.

Ryan had gotten incredibly impatient while waiting for Geoff, and he’d already found the exit of the basement that led directly to the outside after some intense searching. He wanted out, and he’d get it either with Geoff or without. “Way ahead of you on that one.”

* * *

It was a while before they saw each other again, but that didn’t mean that Geoff wasn’t constantly trying to get in touch with Ryan. Phone calls, emails, texts, even a letter had found its way crammed under the door to his apartment. He felt like he was being stalked, but the reason for all of the attempts at contact was made pretty clear when he finally picked up the phone, a few weeks after their first meeting.

“What do you wa-”

“Nice of you to finally pick up, asshole. It’s rude to leave your soulmate in the dark like that. I’ve got a job for you, I need someone taken out and I don’t trust any of my guys enough to do it quietly.” Geoff rolled his eyes when laughter rung out through his phone’s speaker, letting out a sigh when it didn’t die down immediately. “Knock it off. I’ll pay triple your usual rate if you shut up.”

That made Ryan shut up pretty fast, but only because he was now weighing his options. On one hand, he knew his soulmate wouldn’t fuck him over. But on the other, his enemy would. “I want half up front.”

Geoff was grinning because he knew the job would get done right. The Vagabond was good at his work. He thought for a moment, considering Ryan’s terms before saying, “I’ll give you all of it up front if you want, I just need this guy gone. He’s been a thorn in my side for ages now. It should’ve been his fucking name on my wrist, not yours.” His grin widened as that earned a laugh from the other, unable to help but think that Ryan had such a nice laugh.

“Okay, just send all the details, and the money, my way and I’ll have it done within the next... Three days,” he explained before taking the phone away from his ear to hang up, but a loud ‘wait!’ stopped him. “What now?”

“There’s a five grand bonus in it if you do one last thing for me.” Were there other people in the room encouraging what Geoff was going to ask? Yes, absolutely, otherwise it never was going to happen. Could Ryan hear that encouragement? God, he hoped not.

“What’s that?” To say Ryan was nervous was an understatement. Bonuses usually meant he had to deface and desecrate the body in some way, and that wasn’t really his style.

“Go out to dinner with me some time?” He could tell from the silence on the other end of the phone that it had thrown Ryan for a loop, of course it had. They were the biggest names in Los Santos, they didn’t _do_ dating. But... If they were soulmates, that meant Geoff couldn’t possibly fuck things up.

“Oh, Geoff. I’d do that for free.”

The fact that they still remained enemies had slipped from his mind.


End file.
